Played the demo yesterday and from what I've seen I really liked it!I love that for the first time in the XIII series I can have full control of my "party".Also liked the defend option during combat. It isn't game changing but at least it's an incentive to look for monsters patterns and not relying too much on healing.Unfortunately for me, I don't think I'll be able to get it on release as I still have a ton of games I got in Christmas, add the fact that I'm still playing FFXIV but I'll surely get it!

Wow. I wish that was the actual game. 2D FTW. That said, the video didn't rejog my memory of the story at all and their explanation for how Lightning got to Valhalla was by falling through a crater or something... like wtf?

Wow. I wish that was the actual game. 2D FTW. That said, the video didn't rejog my memory of the story at all and their explanation for how Lightning got to Valhalla was by falling through a crater or something... like wtf?

Wow, that was greeat! I was expecting something short and kinda half-assed, but they went all-out making that covering the whole story and complete with retro SquareSoft SFX. x)I almost want demakes now. Or I wish they made FFVI iOS with this much love instead of throwing up all over it.

It took me by surprise that they went with a lighthearted summary. It takes a few liberties as far as I remember but it covers pretty much all the biggest scenes out of the games, the weirdest part though was at 0:35 when they showed a scene from the first novel that was never made available outside of Japan (aside from fan translations).

Wow. I wish that was the actual game. 2D FTW. That said, the video didn't rejog my memory of the story at all and their explanation for how Lightning got to Valhalla was by falling through a crater or something... like wtf?

The video just fly through the events to get people an idea. The context behind that part if you don't remember goes like this:

"Lightning is brought to Valhalla by the effects of a time paradox. When Etro saw how bravely Lightning and her fellow l'Cie fought to save Cocoon, the goddess took pity on them and released them from their crystal stasis and wiped their l'Cie brands. By doing this, however, Etro distorted the timeline and created a time paradox.

At the end of Final Fantasy XIII -Episode i-, some of the chaos of Valhalla spilled forth into Gran Pulse through a rift and dragged Lightning into it, erasing her from history and altering everyone but Serah's memories of her ever being on Pulse after Cocoon's fall. Etro sealed the dimensional gate and stopped the chaos from escaping, but was greatly weakened and entered a deep rest. Now a resident of Valhalla, Lightning was drawn to Etro's temple, where she saw mankind's future and vowed to become Etro's knight and protect the dying goddess."

Yep, I too REALLY wish the actual game was done like that retro video. Made me sort of feel like playing an old FF to be honest... I never did play FF1 or 2 and I have the PSP remakes.... also want to eventually get to the after years after having beat IV (again) last winter.

Anyhow, I decided to finally quell my curiosity and try the LR demo. Thankfully, it resolved not one but two internal struggles for me. I can safely say I don't mind passing on this one and since I was really only bummed about not playing XIII-2 strictly in the interest of getting to XIII-3, no longer having the desire to touch LR sort of laid that issue to rest.

The battle system was what I was looking forward to for the most part and I can't say it sold me. I love the "feel" of the gameplay in battle but hate the whole schema/outfit switching. I wish the outfits were purely for aesthetics or just influenced class or stats or something more along the lines of the old job systems. Switching on the fly during battle for some reason really turned me off.

Ultimately though my feelings on the XIII franchise as a whole at this point can be summed up quite easily. I think they are great games. But like many other great games, they just are not for me (i wish it didn't take so many weeks/hours to confirm this-LoL). Just a taste of LR was enough to make me certain.

I would also like to say though, and I feel I've experienced enough of the franchise to say it, I REALLY don't get the extraordinary amount of hate this series has generated. I think people hating it as badly as they do is sort of what made me both curious and hopeful it would turn out to be something I loved. Sadly that was not the case here... but regardless I can't make any argument to justify in any sense that "these games suck".

Sorry to go on a wee bit of a rant there but I just got through reading a review that tore LR apart, then proceeded to read the comments that followed.... People really are strangely eager and passionate about bashing this one.

I would also like to say though, and I feel I've experienced enough of the franchise to say it, I REALLY don't get the extraordinary amount of hate this series has generated.

That's kind of a long story that is not worth telling at this point to be honest. The short version however if you must know would be that between expectations, some misunderstanding and what SQEX as a company feels should do to stay alive has generated a lot of conflict with chunk of their audience that has lasted for years.

There was also this thing going on with JRPGs in the late 2000s of being no longer relevant anymore and WRPGs were taking their place. I remember that being a thing.

Oh and also I almost forgot, a few years ago a dude from BioWare said this... *shrug*

I would also like to say though, and I feel I've experienced enough of the franchise to say it, I REALLY don't get the extraordinary amount of hate this series has generated.

That's kind of a long story that is not worth telling at this point to be honest. The short version however if you must know would be that between expectations, some misunderstanding and what SQEX as a company feels should do to stay alive has generated a lot of conflict with chunk of their audience that has lasted for years.

There was also this thing going on with JRPGs in the late 2000s of being no longer relevant anymore and WRPGs were taking their place. I remember that being a thing.

Oh and also I almost forgot, a few years ago a dude from BioWare said this... *shrug*

I suppose I should be more accurate.I know how the hate evolved, I just strongly disagree with it.

FF6 was my first RPG ever. It is my favorite, and I have played most of the franchise. It is just as uncomfortable for me as anyone else to see what FF has become. It certainly IS NOT what it was, but it doesn't pretend to be... the part I don't get is how people can deny the quality or integrity of XIII as a whole based on the fact that it isn't what they like or are comfortable with.

XIII in my mind is no different then a slew of stellar triple AAA shooters, fighting and sports titles for me. I recognize that some of these games may be amongst the best of the generation, or ever made (some may argue). I won't dispute that fact. But I have specific tastes and those games don't suit me. The difference with XIII for me personally is as you pointed out, is expectations. I don't expect to like any of those shooters or sports titles while I fully expected to, and wanted to, love the hell out of XIII. Still doesn't change the fact that by most objective gaming measures I can see that XIII is great title even if not anywhere in the realm of my subjective and idealistic hopes.

It is sort of like star trek to me. I know its good. I know people love it. I recognize its greatness but don't want to go near it myself.... Although in Final Fantasy's case it seems more like The Wizard of Oz going on to become Star Trek or something like that-LoL

On a final note.... To be honest, the evolution of Final Fantasy to this point has been gradual and natural. They didn't suddenly jump into what is XIII. It has been evolving into XIII since VII. In all honesty I feel foolish for my expectations as I really shouldn't have expected anything different.

Now getting back on topic and more specific to XIII-3.... What I had hoped for, and what got me excited for XIII-3 in the first place back when it was announced, was the idea of a Zelda style FF featuring Lightning in which I could change her outfits (still quite the novelty in JRPG's for me). Once again, I had unreasonable expectations. What we ended up with is an appropriately evolved XIII-3 and NOT "The Legend of Lightning: Twilight Fantasy".

So I guess to summarize, I gotta agree with you entirely when you bring up expectations being the root cause of the turmoil.

And for the record, while clearly and strictly an opinion, I agree with Bioware dude... thanks for the link. :)

I actually agree with you. I was expecting this to be more Zelda-y, but it is definitely not. It feels very similar to the others, which I thought they were going to try to do something at least different to reclaim the audience they feel they lost.

There's something hilarious about the fact that you of all people posted this.

Because if you pause the video at 6:18 when Noel and Serah are running to catch up with Snow there's totally a vintage FFVI Ultros sprite hidden in a cave in the background. Rather large too so you don't have to squint if you know what you're looking for.

I actually agree with you. I was expecting this to be more Zelda-y, but it is definitely not. It feels very similar to the others, which I thought they were going to try to do something at least different to reclaim the audience they feel they lost.

So, apparently, a bunch of us thought the same thing! I thought it was going to be an action/rpg with full control over Lightning. I might have actually enjoyed that. The way it is just isn't my thing anymore. For the record, I've only ever played 4 hours of FFXIII. I was really turned off by the terrible writing/story, and weird battle system. I've never played anything else FFXIII since then.